Sosso Empire

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about historic Sosso or Susu state. For modern Susu or Soussou ethnic group in Guinea, see Susu people. For Susu or Soussou language, see Susu language. For other uses, see Susu (disambiguation).
Sosso Empire
Kaniaga
1076–c. 1235
Almoravids
1076
c. 1235
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Ghana Empire
Mali Empire
Today part ofMali

The Sosso Empire, also written as Soso or Susu, or alternatively Kaniaga, was kingdom of

Soumaoro Kante, who was defeated by the rising Mali Empire of Sundiata Keita
.

Etymology

Sosso was north of the

Mande peoples. They therefore referred to it as 'Kenieka', meaning north. In Soninke this became 'Kaniaga'. The term 'Sosso' may come from the word for horse, as the kingdom had a monopoly on the horse trade vis-a-vis its southern neighbors. The capital was also called Sosso or Susu, and a village of that name still exists in Mali, near Boron in the Koulikoro Region.[3]

History

The Sosso originated as a group of slaves of the Kaya Magha of the Ghana Empire who likely served as the king's bureaucracy and army governing the province/vassal state of Kaniaga.[4]

According to

Almoravid movement. In 1076 they sacked the capital Koumbi Saleh and many subject peoples broke away, including the Sosso.[2]
Their leader, Gumana Fade, was either a member of the royal Cisse clan or a provincial governor.

Soumaoro Kante
succeeded him as king in the late 12th or early 13th century.

Soumaoro Kante

Under Soumaoro's (or Soumangourou's) rule, the Sosso empire reached its zenith. He forced the Ghana to pay him tribute, an event that Delafosse dates to approximately 1203.[4] He conquered Diarra and Gajaaga and subdued the Mandinka chieftaincies to the south, where the important goldfields of Bure were located.[3][2][6]: 333 

Soumaoro is remembered in Mande oral histories as a cruel, harsh leader. Many

Djenne and Oualata. He beheaded Muslim kings who opposed him.[5]
: 212–13 

At the Battle of Kirina (c. 1235) the Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita led a coalition of smaller states to soundly defeat the Sosso and kill Soumaoro. Sundiata marched on to the city of Susu itself and destroyed it, marking the kingdom's end.[7] The region was then incorporated into Sundiata's Mali Empire.

Historicity

Oral histories, not to mention the Western written histories derived from them, can compress events and people from different periods into single narratives, obscuring the historical facts. Many key questions are unclear today, such as whether Gumana Fade was a governor or a prince, whether the Diarissos ruled Kaniaga at all, whether Diarra was a Kante and what his relationship to the Diarisso dynasty and Soumaoro were, and others. The essential and universal themes are, however, that Soumaoro came from a slave background and that these former slave clans were establishing themselves as political powers as the Ghana empire declined.[4]: 44–5 

References

  1. ^ Conrad, David C. (2005). "Mali Empire, Sundiata and Origins of". In Shillington, Kevin (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 918–919.
  2. ^ a b c Levtzion, Nehemia (1976). "The early states of the Western Sudan to 1500". In Ajayi, A.J. (ed.). History of West Africa (2nd. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 124. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b Fofana, Moussa (31 July 2007). "Point d'Histoire du Mali: Le Royaume de Sosso ou Khaniaga des Soninké". Soninkara. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Conrad, David C. “Oral Sources on Links between Great States: Sumanguru, Servile Lineage, the Jariso, and Kaniaga.” History in Africa, vol. 11, 1984, pp. 35–55. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171626. Accessed 22 Sept. 2023.
  5. ^ a b Page, Willie F. (2005). Davis, R. Hunt (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture. Vol. II (Illustrated, revised ed.). Facts On File.
  6. ISBN 978-1-55876-241-1
  7. ^ Shillington, Kevin (2012). History of Africa. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93, 101.
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